Analysis of Clinical
William Ernest Henley 1849 (Gloucester) – 1903 (Woking)
Hist? . . .
Through the corridor's echoes,
Louder and nearer
Comes a great shuffling of feet.
Quick, every one of you,
Strighten your quilts, and be decent!
Here's the Professor.
In he comes first
With the bright look we know,
From the broad, white brows the kind eyes
Soothing yet nerving you. Here at his elbow,
White-capped, white-aproned, the Nurse,
Towel on arm and her inkstand
Fretful with quills.
Here in the ruck, anyhow,
Surging along,
Louts, duffers, exquisites, students, and prigs -
Whiskers and foreheads, scarf-pins and spectacles -
Hustles the Class! And they ring themselves
Round the first bed, where the Chief
(His dressers and clerks at attention),
Bends in inspection already.
So shows the ring
Seen from behind round a conjurer
Doing his pitch in the street.
High shoulders, low shoulders, broad shoulders, narrow ones,
Round, square, and angular, serry and shove;
While from within a voice,
Gravely and weightily fluent,
Sounds; and then ceases; and suddenly
(Look at the stress of the shoulders!)
Out of a quiver of silence,
Over the hiss of the spray,
Comes a low cry, and the sound
Of breath quick intaken through teeth
Clenched in resolve. And the Master
Breaks from the crowd, and goes,
Wiping his hands,
To the next bed, with his pupils
Flocking and whispering behind him.
Now one can see.
Case Number One
Sits (rather pale) with his bedclothes
Stripped up, and showing his foot
(Alas for God's Image!)
Swaddled in wet, white lint
Brilliantly hideous with red.
Scheme | ABCAXAC ADXDXABXXBEXXFA XCAXXXAGXXXAXCBXEX GFBAXAA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1 10110 10010 1011011 1100111 1110110 10010 0111 101111 10111011 101111111 111101 1011001 1011 100110 1001 1111001 1001110100 100101101 1011101 110011010 10010010 1101 1101101 1011001 110110110101 110100101 110101 100110 101100100 11011010 11010110 1001101 1011001 111111 10010010 110101 1011 10111110 100100011 1111 1101 1101111 1101011 011110 10111 10010011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,451 |
Words | 253 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 15, 18, 7 |
Lines Amount | 47 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 291 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 63 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:16 min read
- 66 Views
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"Clinical" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40457/clinical>.
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